Viva Musical Song Contest 9
|Row 4 title = Status |Row 4 info = Accepting Votes |Row 5 title = Winner |Row 5 info = TBD |Row 6 title = Debuting Countries |Row 6 info = , , |Row 7 title = Withdrawing Countries |Row 7 info = , , , , , , , , , , , |Row 8 title = Returning Countries |Row 8 info = , , , , , |Row 9 title = Timeline |Row 9 info = ◄ 8 10 ► |image = File:VMSC9LOGO.png |imagewidth = 300 }} This is the second edition of the second season of the Viva Musical Song Contest and the ninth overall. This edition will be held in St. Petersburg, , due to the country's win the previous edition. It will take place from August 29th - September 4th, 2016. 27 countries will be participating and due to the high number of withdrawals, there will only be a Grand Final with no semi-finals, the first time since the fifth edition. A national selection for was used to select an entry for the first time. Languages , participating for the fifth time, sends their first song in the official language, Japanese. , makes their debut and sends Maltese for the first time. , participating for the third time, sends their first song in the official language, Russian. Returning Artists Adele returns after last participating for in the 4th edition. She participates for her original home country, , this edition. She placed last in the Grand Final due to the country's disqualification for not voting. Annalisa returns for , after placing 5th in the 2nd edition, one of the best results for the country. Zhanar Dugalova returns for . She won the 5th as part of the girl group, KeshYOU. She enters this edition, solo. Grand Final Countries - The country also returns to the contest after having a string of bad luck, not placing in the top 10 in any edition they have participated in. The nation hopes to crack the top 10 this edition. - After winning the 5th edition, the country returns this edition after having their broadcaster directly funded by the government. - Hoping to popularize the music industry in Malta, the country tries their hand at the Viva Musical Song Contest, debuting this edition. - After seeing neighbor, Australia, having such successes in the contest, the country makes a debut. - Withdrawing after the sixth edition due to discouraging results, San Marino makes a return this edition after a break of two editions. - The country debuts this edition, with no specific reason as to why they chose this edition. National Selections The broadcaster for the decided to fund a national selection to find an entry worthy for participating for the country. "Our goal is to finally win a victory for us. Although hosting was definitely an honor last edition, it would really mean much more to the American people if we won", said the head of delegation for the country. The process of the national selection would go as follows: An artist from four genres (pop, soul, r&b and rock) would send two songs to compete. The chosen artists were Ariana Grande (pop), Andra Day (soul), Tinashe (r&b) and OneRepublic (rock). The two songs from each act would face off against each other, then the winner of each battle would move on to the final, where all the winning songs would compete and the winner will be the competing entry for the country. Battle 1: Battle 2: Battle 3: Battle 4: Final: *Although scoring the same amount of points, the winning song was chosen between the head of the broadcaster's personal preference of the songs, allowing "Player" by Tinashe to represent the country in the ninth edition.